Mending the PTSD of a Heart Warrior
Donation protected
My 12 year old daughter, Arianna, had a high risk open heart surgery on August 21, 2017. They had to remove a large part of her aorta and graft it with bovine heart tissue due to complications to an earlier repair of her congenital heart defect, Coarctation of the Aorta. Thankfully, she survived the surgery with merely a paralyzed left vocal cord, life-long high blood pressure, and some continuous aches and pains; however she developed chronic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder shortly after the surgery, especially because 2 more surgeries for her vocal cord followed in September and November of 2017. She was also diagnosed with “Adjustment Disorder of the Emotions.” Her surgery was so high risk that she was a Make A Wish recipient.
Due to her PTSD, she was forced to be pulled out of school for the entirety of last school year (2017-2018), and I was forced to stay home with her, getting docked half of my pay for 5-6 months.
We REALLY hoped that she would be able to tolerate returning to school this year, but we were very wrong. She was on Buspar during last school year, but we took her off of it after the year was over because it made her very easily agitated. We thought that she had recovered, at least for the most part, but she completely lost it at the start of this school year and had to be placed back on medication; this time she’s on Lexapro. She started out on 5mg, but shortly got moved up to 10mg because she was continuously having anxiety attacks and episodes where she could not handle school. She had missed over 30 days of school between mid-August through December.
After continued regression in December, having panic attacks, crying, and not letting me leave her room at night, I brought her back to see her psychiatrist, who wanted to increase Arianna’s dosage again, up to 15MG!
Arianna has continued to see a psychologist since January of 2017, so I brought her to see her psychologist after meeting with her psychiatrist, to discuss the impossible and stressful task of trying to get her to go to school, because she continued to be so behind on her school work and would typically refuse to go at all.
To make a long story a little shorter, we discussed a few things, and how we shouldn’t have to keep increasing her medication, just for her to handle traditional school. Instead, we needed to make her biggest stressor, school, less stressful.
We decided to look into doing virtual school. Arianna was immediately relieved by the idea, however the excitement fell short because the only free virtual charter school in our area is waitlisted until the 2020-2021 school year!!! Our only option was to enroll her in the private virtual school, The International Connections Academy, but the tuition is $2900 for the semester! She began virtual school in January, and her panic attacks were reduced tremendously. She is also soon to begin EMDR therapy.
This was a lot of money, absolutely, but it was more money to us since I was out of work on unpaid medical leave since August 23, due to a back injury. I injured my back at work, but since Worker’s Comp loves to deny claims, I’m having to sue them! Oh, and then they fired me once I was no longer protected by FMLA...so I’m disabled with my back...2 sets of facet injections didn’t work...so I may not be able to go back to work at all..which is heartbreaking. I haven’t received a paycheck since August 31!! I have a Masters degree in history and have been a public school teacher for 10 years, but now I can barely walk around Walmart or stand long enough to cook dinner. The traditional methods to treat my particular injury have not worked, so we are still working on it. I’ve seen 7 doctors so far.
The timing is completely terrible, and I wish that something would finally go our way. I will attach her attendance record as an update, because I want to make sure that everyone knows that this is real, as those who know our story are already aware.
I appreciate any help. I wish that I didn’t have to ask for it.
Thank You,
Cherie & Arianna
Due to her PTSD, she was forced to be pulled out of school for the entirety of last school year (2017-2018), and I was forced to stay home with her, getting docked half of my pay for 5-6 months.
We REALLY hoped that she would be able to tolerate returning to school this year, but we were very wrong. She was on Buspar during last school year, but we took her off of it after the year was over because it made her very easily agitated. We thought that she had recovered, at least for the most part, but she completely lost it at the start of this school year and had to be placed back on medication; this time she’s on Lexapro. She started out on 5mg, but shortly got moved up to 10mg because she was continuously having anxiety attacks and episodes where she could not handle school. She had missed over 30 days of school between mid-August through December.
After continued regression in December, having panic attacks, crying, and not letting me leave her room at night, I brought her back to see her psychiatrist, who wanted to increase Arianna’s dosage again, up to 15MG!
Arianna has continued to see a psychologist since January of 2017, so I brought her to see her psychologist after meeting with her psychiatrist, to discuss the impossible and stressful task of trying to get her to go to school, because she continued to be so behind on her school work and would typically refuse to go at all.
To make a long story a little shorter, we discussed a few things, and how we shouldn’t have to keep increasing her medication, just for her to handle traditional school. Instead, we needed to make her biggest stressor, school, less stressful.
We decided to look into doing virtual school. Arianna was immediately relieved by the idea, however the excitement fell short because the only free virtual charter school in our area is waitlisted until the 2020-2021 school year!!! Our only option was to enroll her in the private virtual school, The International Connections Academy, but the tuition is $2900 for the semester! She began virtual school in January, and her panic attacks were reduced tremendously. She is also soon to begin EMDR therapy.
This was a lot of money, absolutely, but it was more money to us since I was out of work on unpaid medical leave since August 23, due to a back injury. I injured my back at work, but since Worker’s Comp loves to deny claims, I’m having to sue them! Oh, and then they fired me once I was no longer protected by FMLA...so I’m disabled with my back...2 sets of facet injections didn’t work...so I may not be able to go back to work at all..which is heartbreaking. I haven’t received a paycheck since August 31!! I have a Masters degree in history and have been a public school teacher for 10 years, but now I can barely walk around Walmart or stand long enough to cook dinner. The traditional methods to treat my particular injury have not worked, so we are still working on it. I’ve seen 7 doctors so far.
The timing is completely terrible, and I wish that something would finally go our way. I will attach her attendance record as an update, because I want to make sure that everyone knows that this is real, as those who know our story are already aware.
I appreciate any help. I wish that I didn’t have to ask for it.
Thank You,
Cherie & Arianna
Organizer
Cherie Weaver Varian
Organizer
Slidell, LA
